


Three Halves

by stardust_and_sunlight



Category: Half a Sixpence - Fandom
Genre: But today is not that day, Canon Compliant, Multi, Polyamory, Post-Canon, just an idea really, maybe i will write it some day, this is not a proper story
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-29
Updated: 2018-01-29
Packaged: 2019-03-11 03:33:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,042
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13515774
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stardust_and_sunlight/pseuds/stardust_and_sunlight
Summary: or: What Happened After Ann and Arthur Got Married.





	Three Halves

**Author's Note:**

> I saw Half a Sixpence twice in three days in its last week in the Noël Coward Theatre, and I absolutely loved it (release the pro-shoot please it's what we deserve).  
> I wrote this immediately after, and found it this morning and thought I might as well post it.  
> Maybe one day I'll make it a proper story, but for now here is the bare ideas of a plot.  
> Hope you enjoy!

So Ann and Arthur are happily married, they have a nice little house and Sid and Arthur have the bookshop that they run together and they both love it, Arthur reads everything he can get his hands on and loves to learn new things. Ann still works as a parlourmaid at Lady Punnet’s because despite her best efforts she does quite like the lady, but she has better hours and she takes evening classes when she can- Arthur’s happy learning from books but Ann wants to be taught. 

And then she starts a new set of classes (wood working? or something else?) and Helen is the teacher. Of course Ann recognises her but Helen really only saw Ann like twice and she was dressed as a maid and so she doesn't recognise Ann. Ann really enjoys the class- Helen is a wonderful teacher. 

She doesn't tell Arthur, not because she's worried he’ll leave her but more because she wants to suss out Helen away from Arthur’s bias. So she keeps going to the class and she begins to really like Helen, who is a great teacher and a lovely person and Ann knows she's been through a lot but she's so kind and caring and Ann really understands why Arthur fell for her. 

Helen works as a (primary) school teacher during the day, and does these evening classes for adults at night to supplement her income, her mother still wants to live her fancy life and refuses to work and Helen’s teacher salary can't support that. She tutors rich children, the kids of the women she used to socialise with, and she teaches her classes and she survives. 

Ann’s one of the few women in the class, so she and Helen become friends, start going for lunch and things, and Ann loves spending time with her. She tells Arthur and Arthur has a bit of a freak out, unsurprisingly. 

Arthur makes some kind of joke about Ann leaving him for Helen and Ann retorts something about it not being off the table (and tells him about her dalliances with Flo back when they were both pining over Arthur, back when they understood each other). 

And so Ann brings Arthur to her next lunch with Helen, introduces him as her husband, and Helen knocks over her chair in an uncharacteristic show of gracelessness, and tries to excuse herself, not making eye contact with Arthur, and Ann sees in her eyes what she'd suspected- that Helen still loved him, that she hadn't stopped, and so Ann grabs her wrist and asks her gently to stay, and she does. 

So then the three of them start to spend time together, and Helen and Arthur get to know each other more as themselves- without Arthur falling over himself trying to soften his speech and actions to impress her, with Helen more at ease, more of her propriety gone. 

One time, they invite Helen over to their house for dinner, and they spend ages cooking something lovely, and Helen comes round and is so overwhelmed and grateful. And their house is lovely and cosy and small and tidy and Ann leaves the room for whatever reason and Helen tells Arthur with all sincerity that she's so happy for him, that he got the little house he wanted, and she's so happy they're happy and she can tell they love each other so much and she's glad. (And she can't tell who she's jealous of anymore). 

Ann and Helen spend more time together than Helen and Arthur do- both because it's simply easier, they're around each other more often for the classes and they’re both women surrounded by men, but also because there's that history between Helen and Arthur and they both are feeling more comfy around each other and it’s worrying them. (Ann’s the first to make a move. But we’ll come back to that.)

The first time Helen curses around Ann and Arthur, Ann cheers and Arthur spits out his drink. And as she gets more comfortable with them, she starts to adopt some of their expressions and way of speech, and they both grin every time Helen drops an h in amongst all her carefully formed words. 

They go out for beers at the pub, Helen in her pretty and spotless pale blue skirt and white blouse, and she drinks them under the table, smirking at them as she effortlessly downs pints. She grew up sipping champagne, she says, and Arthur groans, sliding under the table. He never could hold his drink. Ann smiles. 

And I reckon that they spend weeks dancing around each other, Ann obviously the one who’s more aware of what’s happening and she didn’t mean to fall in love with Helen but the woman is strong and hilarious and lovely and one day Ann just realises that she wants Helen to be happy and she wants to be the one making her happy. 

So either she has a chat with Arthur and asks him how he feels about Helen and Arthur gets all defensive and Ann laughs at him and tells him that it’s okay, she loves her too. And then they plan a devious seduction of Helen which fails because they try to be sexy and can’t stop laughing and eventually they just tell Helen they both love her and they both want to court her and what does she say? And she panics and runs away, or she freezes and stares at them with barely disguised hope in her eyes. And then they convince her, tell her that they’re not taking the piss, and they all live happily ever, and no-one gossips and they’re happy.

OR alternatively Ann kisses Helen goodbye one day, not even realising, just something she’d wanted to do for so long, and then she freaks out and apologises and Helen looks her right in the eyes and kisses her right back. And then Ann gets all flustered and Helen mutters ‘finally’ and they go back to the house and Ann sheepishly tells Arthur that they don’t need to carry out their brilliant plan because she got overwhelmed by how beautiful Helen was, but it’s fine, it worked out. And they live happily ever after. YAY.

**Author's Note:**

> You can find me on [twitter](https://twitter.com/holIyshort) -come and say hi!


End file.
